Ezines are sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone whoreceives an ezine has chosen to do so.And that's why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezinesand they'll read your ad. And if you've matched the ezine to theproduct you're selling, you've reached your target audience.
There are currently around 90,000 ezines being published everymonth. So whatever you're selling, there's more than likely anezine that will take your ad straight to the audience you wantto reach.
Ezine advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as well. A 5line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between$5 and $20 per issue.
As a general rule, you'll always get back at least the cost of thead, and usually much more. So there's very little risk.
But there are some tips for successful ezine advertising.Here they are:
1) The first and most important rule is:"Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in 5 different ezines and geta hundred responses. If you don't track your ads, you won't knowwhich ezines were pulling responses and which weren't.
But how do you track your ads?
The simplest method is to place a key or a code at the end of youremail address:
yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=ezineAThen, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the subject field, you'llknow which ezine it came from.
For a URL, it's the same principle:
http://www.yourdomain.com?ezineAHowever, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll need a goodwebstats program to track the coded URLs. These two programs areexcellent and they're both free:
www.hitbox.com
www.openwebscope.comHere's another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create aduplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezine thatyour ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA, thisis the URL you'd place in that ad:
http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA2) Target your audience. It may seem obvious but some advertisersoverlook this. If you're selling a web-marketing course, don'tadvertise in an ezine that deals with stock options; they probablywon't be interested.
Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to find ezinesthat relate to the product you're selling. You can find a list of56 ezine directories in 'The Free Directory of Ezines' at:
www.NetMasterSolutions
3) Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience,subscribe to them and examine the ads closely. If you see an ad thatkeeps repeating issue after issue, you can be pretty sure that it'sgetting results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.
4) Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You probably won'tget much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads perissue. Readers of those ezines have become hardened to the ads andhave learnt to skip them.
5) Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of never runningads for two similar products in the same issue - your ad will bemuch more effective if it's the only one of it's kind in thatparticular issue.
6) Small ezines Vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always better. The bigezines with 1000's of subscribers tend to have more ads than thesmall ezines. Also, small ezines with only a few hundred subscribersoften have a much more targeted audience than the big ezines.
7) Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web, an ad has to beseen about 21 times before someone acts on it; on the Internet it'sabout 9 times. If your budget allows, try and have your ad repeatedat least three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offerdiscount packages for bulk advertising.
8) Email address Vs. URL. The advantage of giving an email addressis that it gives you the opportunity to send a powerful sales letterto the person who responded to your ad. It's also much easier totrack your ads with an email address than a URL.
9) Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often tip the balancebetween a response and no response.
10) Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the number ofwords you're allowed. Short ads are more likely to be read. Keepyour sentences short too; they pack much more power. Use the word'You'. Don't describe your product but tell the reader what yourproduct can do for them.
